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As machines supplant people in every field from production to the arts, there are still some things that are simply better done with a human touch. A violin that comes off a factory line just can’t compare with one crafted in a workshop. Shot at the the Chicago School of Violin Making, this meditative and pleasingly resonant short documentary traces the meticulous, months-long process of creating a musical instrument almost entirely by hand.
Director: Brendan Leahy
Editor: Chris Zuker
Website: Studio Skylight
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Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
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Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
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Film and visual culture
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War and peace
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
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History of technology
Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy
19 minutes
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Animals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
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Technology and the self
Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California
24 minutes
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Beauty and aesthetics
Can you see music in this painting? How synaesthesia fuelled Kandinsky’s art
10 minutes
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The ancient world
Petty squabbles and bloody battles – the life of an ancient Roman soldier
18 minutes